Frank Peretti Monster

Monster

Frank Peretti

WestBow, Apr 2005, $24.99

ISBN: 084991180X

Sheriff's Deputy Reed Shelton persuades his physically in shape wife (from jogging) Rebecca to go hiking and camping with him. Reluctant Beck agrees because she loves her spouse. However, when they reach the isolated cabin, someone has previously broken into it. Suddenly at night they are in trouble from an unknown assailant; while fleeing she falls and they end up separated in spite of his efforts to find her. Beck, who is not a survivalist like her husband, becomes lost in the wilderness, dangerous for her as a greenhorn.

A frantic Reed and others search for Beck, who meets many odd beings on her quest to find her way back to her spouse. However, Reed and company meet with no success, but find instead something that one of them, a crime scene investigator, insists could not be human, killing anything in its path. The fear is that the creature is coming for Beck if it has not already succeeded.

When the tale focuses on a strong search and rescue mission, the story line is a top rate thriller though the multitude of support characters can prove difficult to keep up with; but worth it as amazingly Frank Peretti gives the keys ones differing personalities. On the other hand when the center of the plot goes into an anti evolution tirade even with a potential Bigfoot explanation, the pace slows down accordingly as the novel turns lecturer rather than action-oriented. However, once past that diatribe, the book goes full speed with everyone wondering who will find Beck first even as she befriends some interesting creatures on her mystical trek through the wilds.

Harriet Klausner